Futurama's Famous 'Take My Money' Meme Followed Its Creator Into Real Life
In the "Futurama" episode "Attack of the Killer App" (July 1, 2010), the Planet Express crew becomes rabidly enamored of a new piece of consumer electronics, the eyePhone, an eyeball-mounted social media browsing widget released by the evil MomCorp. The episode's writer, Patric Verrone, was careful to lampoon the fervor that accompanied Apple's iPhones in real life, pointing out that any scarcity is manufactured, and that consumers tend to be a little too cavalier with the object's inexplicably high price. A store employee tells Fry (Billy West) that the eyePhone costs $500, and also that "you have no choice of carrier, the battery can't hold a charge, and the reception isn't very —" Fry interrupts him by screaming "Shut up and take my money!"
That line of dialogue has become a well-worn meme across the barren alkali flats of the internet. Whenever a new film is announced, or a new product is introduced into the market, enthused fans will merely post a picture of Fry yelling "Shut up and take my money!"
Screenwriters likely dream of moments like this, knowing they authored a line of dialogue that snagged into the collective unconscious and has altered everyday colloquialisms. This wasn't the first time it happened for a "Futurama" writer either. In an episode of "The Simpsons," future "Futurama" co-creator David X. Cohen wrote the line "It's a perfectly cromulent word," inventing "cromulent" for a joke. "Cromulent" now appears in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
During the "Futurama" panel at the 2022 Los Angeles Comic Con, Verrone was asked about the line. He revealed that, without irony, he reenacted the scene in real life ... in a real Apple store. Life imitates art in uncanny ways.
The square root of all evil
Verrone was presented by the Con's panel host, Adam Taylor, with his acumen at writing and its meme-ification. Verrone was demure, although he did have a story to tell. He didn't just write the line. He lived it. Verrone said:
"There is an actual little story about it. Which, weeks after it aired, and I was in an Apple store, and I was trying to buy something. And the clerk was upselling me, and I said, 'Shut up and take my money!'"
Verrone noted that his dialogue from "Attack of the Killer App" wasn't a callback, but a call forward.
"Upselling," as all of us who have worked in retail know, is typically a mandate from one's corporate overlords to encourage customers to purchase a tiny bit more than they asked for. This can take the form of selling a larger size popcorn at a movie theater to purchasing a second phone line to adding rust protection or insurance to a car. The corporate thinking is "You've already spent money, so what's a little more?" Customers, of course, tend to recognize when they are being upsold and will respond according to their mood; sometimes the upsell is welcome, but often not.
Verrone was clearly rejecting his being upsold at the Apple store and used Fry's line of dialogue counter to its initial intent. He wasn't eager to overspend, but to fling his money down and get the heck away from the Genius Bar. Either way, "Shut up and take my money" was incredibly useful.